


Touching Base

by TSwiftEliot



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Introspection, Multiple Selves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 07:29:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9537962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TSwiftEliot/pseuds/TSwiftEliot
Summary: A gym leader's daughter and a professor's daughter walk into a bush,





	

**Author's Note:**

> Contains game spoilers for R/S/E/OR/AS.
> 
> The bush at the south end of Route 120, halfway between Fortree and Lilycove, was my favorite secret base location.

He pulls off his beanie and runs a hand through the front of his hair.

"Whoooo-oohf. That stings... I really can't beat you, can I? And I had a head start on you as a trainer and everything."

He tugs his hat back on, adjusts it, drops his fists to his side, breathes hard. Looks at the ground, the decorative brick pattern between his feet still braced in battle stance. Not at her face. May's gut turns into quicksand.

"I... I was only really in this to help my dad with fieldwork, and my Pokédex is coming along pretty well now, so I've been thinking I'm gonna... head back home to Littleroot and show him..."

May doesn't wait for him to finish; she's off like a shot, pushing him aside, feet slapping back down the steps. She has her own bike, but she runs, knowing he won't follow. May sprints back out the west side of town, through the tall reeds, dashing through puddles, all the way down to a place no one would ever follow her to. May is the only person in the world who knows where her own secret base is.

Except when she crawls through the bush to get there, someone else is already inside.

There's a young woman in a red bandanna examining the mudkip doll on the floor. May is not in the mood for this.

"Who are you? How did you get in here? And that doll is mine, nobody said you could touch that," May snarls. She sounds savage, but, hey, maybe that comes with the territory of destroying your best friend's hopes and dreams.

The red bandanna girl looks over her shoulder, and May is confronted with her own face. (It's a little older, less round; and she's wearing a bike kit and gloves instead. But her hair is even parted to the same side as May's.)

"You know, in my secret base, this doll is a torchic," she comments, "but everything else is the same."

May crawls on her knees over to the edge of her rug, and curls up on it, suddenly too tired to bite more.

"This is still my secret base, then. You should get out." May spares an upward glance at the other girl; she's settled into a cross-legged position at the far end of the mat, looking over expectantly. Ugh. "Go. I want to be alone right now."

"Oh, but I think we are, May." Lying on her side on the floor, May tenses. She never gave this girl- "That is your name, isn't it?" she continues. "Because that's my name too, and I figure we must be same thing, so don't worry! I'm just like you. Daughter of Hoenn's very own Professor Birch."

"No."

"No? That's not you? Ah, I must look really silly now, I thought for sure-"

"My name's May," says the right May, the one who owns this base. "But don't- don't even joke about-" she can't even finish the phrase. May's eyes scrunch up and her mouth twists. Ugly. She doesn't want the other May to be subjected to seeing her own face like this, so she digs it into her knees.

"Are you crying?" Shut up, other May. "You ARE me, like I thought. Did something happen to our dad in this universe?"

"Professor Birch is Brendan's dad," May says. The sound is muffled by her legs.

Other May had started crawling across the mat to check on her counterpart's crying, but plops down two feet short and says nothing. May finds herself a little pissed that telling this girl to go away wouldn't shut her up, but telling her she was wrong about something does the trick.

The two of them stay like that, a little while, silent as the rain on Route 120 starts to slowly move south, pattering over the leaves of the bush they called a second home. May breaks it first, because staying curled on her side looks silly and her neck is starting to hurt.

Pushing herself upright and rubbing the imprint of the rug off her right cheek, she says, "did you ever quit being a trainer?"

Other May blinks, snapped from her own thoughts. "I've still got my-"

"No," May cuts her off, "did you ever stop, you know, journeying around, collecting gym badges, challenging strong people and stuff. Since Professor Birch is your dad. Did you go back to help with research and stop. Maybe recently? Or within the last year, if you're older than me?"

"Is that... did that happen here recently?" other May says, slowly.

May nods miserably, looking at her feet. "It was like... two hours ago, actually. Brendan told me he would. Go back. Home."

"Ohhh, and you're sad because you think he wants to stop seeing you."

How can another version of herself be so annoying? May is pretty sure she doesn't act like such a know-it-all.

"I'm not _sad_. It's not even like we saw each other that often. But like. This was our whole thing. He really wanted to be a good trainer. And I made him stop. I feel-" May pauses to inhale for the first time. "I feel like a monster for taking away something important to my friend."

Other May hums and rests her chin on one hand. She's trying to figure out a way to say something diplomatically, May can tell. It ticks her off more. If she needs to handled delicately, then she is no better than a child, or a beast.

"Do you think his goal was the same as yours?"

"Huh?"

"Well, there are other things to do in life. It's not as big a deal if Brendan had another-"

"What do you even know about my dreams?" says May, suddenly. "You're older than me, right? How many gym badges do you even have?"

"May," says the other May, "have _you_ even thought about your dreams?"

And in truth, she hadn't, not enough to ever put it into words before, but the answer is so simple, self-evident, that it drops from her lips without hesitation: "to get as far as I can."

Outside the base, the wind picks up. The rain comes in at more of an angle. May continues.

"And I know a person can _have_ other goals, like Brendan doing the pokédex to help his dad and stuff, but I can tell from the way he talked he was pretty serious about this thing, and if someone stopped me cold I'd feel pretty bad about it, so he must be feeling the same way." Other May opens her mouth but May plows through, damned before she lets little miss politesse get the upper hand on her. "Just because you think you're too good to try anymore, or whatever reason you're not answering my questions for, doesn't mean this universe's Birch doesn't want to live that dream."

May's face heats up from - anger? probably? - as she runs on. Other May lifts her chin off her hand and trades her amused smile for a soft scowl.

"You want me to be honest with you? A dream like that was never gonna last. You can both see it through to the end, but even then, there's only one Pokémon league champion. Learning to set other goals is part of _being an adult_ and just because the thing you end up doing isn't glamorous, it doesn't mean you can't be happy doing it, and _settling_ for something doesn't make someone _pitiable_. It doesn't even matter how serious that boy is now, because in a year he can get over it and find something else to be happy with. Life is like that."

She sighs and slouches further, staring unfocused at the floor a few feet to her right. May blinks.

"Do you... I, champion? Why'd you bring up-"

"I took long break after badge six," other May admits. "I'm still on it, actually. I'd really like a gym badge that allows me to use dive outside of battle. I think your future - you're right by the way, I am a little older than you - can be extrapolated from what happens with my neighbor, Brendan. But I also don't think it's a good idea to tell you your future."

"Can you tell me yours?" May asks. "I won't tell my Brendan what might happen to him. I just want to know. I can't imagine," she doesn't have the words to finish. Other May understands all the same.

"Brendan's a good trainer, but I'm on track to complete my pokédex first. I've evolved more species. The eggs I breed prove a better pedigree in battle. I routinely," she smiles, "kick his ass in contests. I am doing pretty well for myself."

May notices that her other self seems to enjoy a good brag. She also makes a mental note to fill out her dex and enter more contests from now on.

"I am still concerned that my Brendan won't do all that," May says. "He's wimpier than you, since you're me."

"Hah!" the older May barks. "Then that's his problem to solve. Like I said, it's part of growing up. You're free to worry about him as long as you keep in mind-"

May cuts her off now, in part just to prove that May Birch is not the only one who can predict what her alter ego will say. "It's me, of course it is. The most important person to anyone should be their own self."

Other May smiles, sharp and crinkly, not quite up to her eyes. "That's my girl."


End file.
